Before the Brawl
by art1st4786
Summary: Some of the Smashers arrive early, but something evil is afoot already. The newcomers to the tournament have been kidnapped, and it’s up to Mario and the others to save them!
1. Reunions and Welcomes

Chapter 1: Reunions and Welcomes

Mario hopped out of the warp pipe with his things and landed on the walkway leading up to the Smash Mansion. He was excited that he was once again going to participate in the Super Smash Bros. tournament. He was also happy to see his old friends again from the previous tournaments. He knew there would be new people entering, as there were every tournament. He always welcomed a new challenge.

Mario took in a deep breath of fresh air, exhaled, then made his way up to the mansion. It was a brick, five-story high mansion with three towers. The middle tower was the tallest and the thickest. The two towers on either side of the structure were a story shorter and a bit smaller in mass. He made his way to the beautifully decorated wooden doors and placed his hand on the brass doorknob, but he didn't turn it right away.

"Something is on the other side of this door," thought Mario aloud. He braced himself and turned the doorknob. He pushed the door slowly and gently, letting it creek as it was opened. After noticing that there was nothing on the other side of the door, Mario sighed in relief and opened the door the rest of the way, smiling. Out of nowhere, a yellow blur came flying at him and tackled him down the steps and onto the ground outside with a hard thud. "Mama-mia!"

"Pika pika!" shouted the electric mouse happily. Mario laughed and sat up, pushing Pikachu off his lap.

"Pikachu, this is the third year in a row you've done this!" laughed the plumber. "Looks like I'm not the first one here this year again."

"Pii-Pikachu!" Pikachu then pointed into the main lobby. Mario looked at where Pikachu was pointing and saw Kirby, Samus, and—

"Wario?" shouted Mario. "What are you doing here?" Wario laughed, his belly jiggling up and down a bit.

"I was invited to come this year!" said Wario. "It's about time, too!" Mario got up off the ground and stormed over to Wario, glaring at him.

"Just don't try anything, okay?" threatened Mario.

"All right, ladies, break it up," ordered an unfamiliar voice. Everyone in the lobby looked over at the staircase to see a tall man with brown hair, a gray headband, a goatee, and a cigarette in his mouth. He wore a skin-tight gray jumpsuit, which showed off his large muscles. His overall features made him look grumpy. Walking behind him was a young boy with reddish-brown hair. He had deep blue eyes, a short, white toga, brown gloves and boots, black, skin-tight shorts, and white wings sprouting from his back.

"Who the heck are you?" asked Wario. The man grinned cockily.

"Solid Snake," answered the man, lighting his cigarette. The boy behind him opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted.

"Pit! It's been a while," chirped Mario. Pit jumped over Snake and landed in front of Mario, smiling.

"It's good to see you again, Mario," replied Pit. Kirby tugged on Pit's toga to get his attention. Pit looked down at the pink puffball and smiled at him, picking him up and setting him on his shoulder. "You, too, Kirby."

"I didn't know you were going to be here, too," exclaimed Mario.

"I was invited to come this year," explained Pit. "Coming down the stairs, I found out that Snake was invited, too. He's been around about the same amount of time we have, to be honest." Mario thought for a bit, then got a surprised look on his face.

"That's right, he has!" yelped Mario.

"Took you a while to realize that," grunted Snake as he took a puff of his cigarette. At that moment, he felt a cold, metallic hand on his shoulder from behind, which caused his body to tense up a bit.

"Don't you know there's no smoking in this building?" interrogated the owner of the hand. Snake sighed, dropped the cigarette on the ground, then squished it with his foot, putting it out. "That's better."

"Yay!" shouted Kirby excitedly, jumping off of Pit's shoulder and flying over to the armored figure. Kirby landed on the figure as she was removing her helmet, revealing a beautiful woman with long, blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. Her bangs and two long strands of hair framed her face and light blue eyes.

"Hey there, Kirby," greeted Samus. Just then, a small thud was heard in the lobby by the front door. There stood a small, armored and caped figure about Kirby's height. He held his cape like a bat covers its body when perched. Kirby glared at the newcomer. Samus lifted her hand up and put it on Kirby's head. "Easy there."

"You spoil that puffball too much," stated the newcomer.

"And who are you supposed to be?" asked Samus.

"My name is Meta Knight, and I received an invitation to join this year's Super Smash Bros. Tournament," explained Meta Knight.

"Welcome to the Smash Mansion then, Meta Knight," welcomed Mario. The plumber then looked up and smiled a bit when he saw a familiar person walk in through the doorway. He was a handsome Hylian, with blond hair framing his crystal blue eyes. He wore a green tunic with copper chain mail underneath, and a white, long-sleeved shirt underneath that. He wore off-white pants, which were mostly covered by his knee-high brown boots. A shield and the Master Sword resided on his back, partially hidden by his long, green cap. "Link! It's good to see you again!"

"Huh?" asked Link, looking confused.

"Pika Pi!" shouted Pikachu excitedly. Link looked at Pikachu, then at Samus and Kirby, who were walking over to him.

"Good to see you again, Link," stated Samus. "I like the new look you have."

"New look?" asked Link.

"Yeah, you do look a bit different from last year," agreed Mario.

"Last year? But I—"

"But you're here nonetheless," interrupted Mario. Link looked around at the crowd surrounding him and he finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Who are you guys?"


	2. Missing

Mario, Samus, Kirby, and Pikachu stared at Link in horror. They couldn't believe that Link didn't remember them. Mario then cleared his throat and spoke up.

"We're sorry, we didn't mean to bombard you like that, Link," apologized Mario. "I'm Mario Mario, and these are Samus Aran, Pikachu, Kirby, Pit, Meta Knight, Solid Snake, and, unfortunately, Wario."

"Hey!" shouted Wario. Link laughed a bit.

"It's okay. It's nice to meet all of you," greeted Link. He suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable again. "I'll be upstairs if you need me." He bowed his head, then picked up his things and went upstairs, searching for his room. Mario frowned, knowing something was wrong.

"I'm going to go check on him," announced Mario. "I'll see you all later." He then went up the stairs. Samus punched a few keys on her wrist, making her Chozo suit disappear, leaving her in her form-fitting blue jumpsuit. Snake's jaw dropped a bit at the sight. He then snapped out of it and watched Samus walk out of the room, Pikachu trailing behind her. He shrugged his shoulders and walked into the kitchen, Kirby following after him eagerly. Meta Knight followed Kirby into the kitchen, mainly to keep an eye on Kirby. Pit decided to go down one of the hallways downstairs, exploring the mansion. Eventually, Wario was left alone in the main lobby. He sighed and flopped down onto the couch.

"It's about time those morons left!" exclaimed Wario. "I couldn't handle anymore of that mushy stuff." He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then exhaled, smirking. He opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was a gold coin on the ground. He immediately hopped off the couch and went to pick it up. "Heh heh! Money!" He then saw more coins in a line, leading to a dark part of the room. Ignoring the details of the situation, he quickly started picking up the coins, following the trail. As soon as the coin trail stopped, he looked around to see if there were more. Before he could react, a large shadow came out of the wall and grabbed at Wario, sucking him into the wall. Wario didn't even have a chance to scream before there was no trace of him left in the lobby.

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Pit walked down the lighted hallway, looking at the different labels on the doors. Out of boredom, he began to say the names of each of the doors out loud.

"'Training facilities'," read Pit. "'Laundry Room'. 'Stairs to Basement'. 'Boiler Room'. Maybe I'll go back to the training facilities and train a bit. This is my first time here, and I'll need the extra training to stand a chance against the veterans." Just then, all of the lights in the hallway cut off, leaving the place completely dark. Pit sighed. "Great, we took a power hit." He took out his bow and summoned a light arrow. He used it as a flashlight to look around. The arrow shot down the hallway as Pit was hit in the back by an unknown force. Before Pit could turn around to see who attacked him, the shadows consumed him, pulling him into the floor. The lights then cut back on, with no trace of Pit anywhere. A lone arrow was all that remained, embedded into the back wall of the hallway.

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Snake walked over to the refrigerator and opened it up, rummaging through it for whatever kind of food he could squabble. Before he got a chance to look hard enough, he felt a tug at his pant leg. He looked down and saw Kirby looking up at him with pathetic eyes. Snake sighed.

"Get your own food," groaned Snake. He went back to looking, then felt a swift kick to the side of his knee. He let out a yelp of pain and knelt down, massaging where he got hit. He glared at Kirby. "I told you to get your own food, runt!"

"Good, someone who doesn't spoil him," remarked Meta Knight. "Kirby, get your own food." Kirby pouted, then walked towards the counter. He hopped up onto it, then floated up a bit to open up a cabinet. Unfortunately for him, it was empty. Even more unfortunate for him, something from behind him shoved him into the cabinet and slammed the door shut. Kirby tried getting out, but he felt that something heavy was in front of the cabinet door, keeping him from getting out. He banged against it desperately, yelling for someone to get him out. Snake heard the yelling and quickly stood up, looking in that direction.

"Meta Knight, that was a good trick, but his yelling is annoying now," complained Snake. No response from anyone in the room. He looked around. "Meta Knight?" He kept searching, but Meta Knight was nowhere to be found. He took out his knife, having a bad feeling about what was happening. "Show yourself!" Unfortunately for him, the shadow did show itself. It came up from underneath Snake and wrapped around him tightly, keeping him from screaming out. The shadow completely consumed Snake, then disappeared into the shadows of the room.

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Link was sitting on the couch in the penthouse on the top floor of the mansion, looking out the windows. The Master Sword and Link's shield resided next to the couch, leaning against it. The only light that came into the room was from the full moon outside. He closed his eyes for a few moments, then opened them again once he heard a knock on the door. He looked over his shoulder towards the door.

"It's open," he shouted. The door opened and in came Mario with a worried look on his face. The plumber closed the door behind him and walked over to the couch, sitting next to Link.

"Are you okay?" asked Mario. Link nodded, then looked back out the window.

"How do you guys know me?" interrogated Link. "I've never seen any of you before."

"You were here the past two tournaments," replied Mario. "Weren't you?" Link shook his head. Mario dug into his pocket and took out a photograph, handing it to Link. The Hylian took the picture and looked at it. It was a picture of the original twelve Smashers: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Fox, Samus, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Ness, Captain Falcon, and Link. Link's eyes widened slightly when he looked at the Hero of Time's photo. "Is something wrong?"

"That's…the Hero of Time," breathed Link. "He's…" Mario looked up at Link, a confused expression on his face. "He's my father." Mario's eyes widened a bit.

"No wonder you didn't know about us," exclaimed Mario. "You aren't the Link we know." Link nodded slightly. Mario then got off the couch and stood in front of Link, holding his hand out. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Link." Link smiled, then stood and shook the plumber's hand.

"You, too, Mario," said Link. Mario nodded, then let go of Link's hand. "I'm going to head downstairs and get something to eat. I'll see you later." Mario nodded, then watched Link head towards the door. Suddenly, a tall, shadowy figure stepped in front of Link and held his palm out towards Mario. The figure charged up a blast of dark magic, then sent it hurling at the plumber. Mario cried out in pain as he was sent flying back, landing on his back on the ground.

"Mario!" shouted Link. He rushed over towards Mario, but was apprehended from behind by the attacker. The figure wrapped one arm tightly around Link's upper body, pinning his arms to his sides, and clamped a hand over Link's mouth. Link struggled and let out muffled cries for help. Mario's senses came back to him as he sat up. He quickly got to his feet once he saw that Link was in trouble.

"Link!" cried out Mario. He then glared at the shadow. "Let him go!"

"I must thank you, Mario Mario," spoke the shadow. "Had you not pried, I would not have known that this was the boy's first tournament. I believe I have collected all of the newcomers now."

"What are you talking about?" asked Mario.

"Every new tournament attendee that has arrived are now in my clutches," explained the shadow. "If you want to see them again, however, come to Castle Daeis. Try to rescue them if you dare."

"Why are you even doing this?" shouted Mario. The shadow ignored Mario's question and quickly ran towards the windows, still holding onto Link tightly. He then crashed through the window, falling down towards the ground. Mario gasped and ran towards the broken window. He skidded to a stop once he saw the shadow creature fly up, carrying a now unconscious Link. The shadow then flew off towards the distance, going through a portal. It quickly closed behind him. "Link!"


End file.
